DailyDirt: Braiiins... And Brain Implants

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, May 6th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Cyborgs are already walking among us -- if you count people who have advanced pacemakers and other implanted devices (eg. insulin pumps, cochlear implants, etc). There are also a handful of folks who are actively trying to become cyborgs, like Kevin Warwick. However, brain implants still need to be a lot less invasive and traumatic if anyone is going to really get a direct, permanent brain interface. Here are just a few links on neuro-interfaces that are making some progress.

Cyborg rodents with spinal cord injuries can walk again thanks to implanted neural interfaces and flexible silicone wiring. This kind of research is still quite far away from being used in human patients, but it's promising work that could someday lead to amazing computer-brain interfaces. [url]
The Utah Array is a chip that can be implanted in a person's brain and receive signals to do things such as control prosthetic limbs. There are also other kinds of neuroprosthetics that are similar (eg. Michigan array and NeuroProbes arrays), but these devices aren't exactly ready to replace smartphones just yet. [url]
One woman has a brain implant that controls her epilepsy by scanning her brain for signs of a seizure and then stimulating her brain to interrupt it. Sixteen other patients have also been fitted with commercial neurostimulators, and doctors are learning more and more about how brain activity works with these implants. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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Filed Under: brain, brain implants, cyborg, epilepsy, kevin warwick, michigan array, neural interfaces, neuroprobes array, neurostimulators, prosthetic limbs, utah array

5 Comments

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cypherspace (profile), 6 May 2015 @ 6:15pm

Better hope we don't go down the route of DX:HR with backdoored neural chips.
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TwelveBaud (profile), 6 May 2015 @ 6:19pm

As long as it's not psychomotor epilepsy and the surgery isn't in the Neuro-Psychiatric Service of University Hospital...
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Rekrul, 7 May 2015 @ 6:16pm

Re:
Better hope we don't go down the route of DX:HR with backdoored neural chips.

Rest assured that all future implants will be WiFi enabled (or whatever the equivalent is when the implants are perfected), since it's apparently against the law now to create any electronic device that doesn't connect to the net.
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TRX (profile), 8 May 2015 @ 7:16pm

> epilepsy

Michael Crichton, 1972: The Terminal Man

Not one of his better books, but Crichton was both an MD and a Computer Science grad, which gave the story technical versimilitude anyway.
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Diannea, 4 May 2017 @ 1:51pm

implanted/stalekd with harssment called offender ilegally!
I over heard a unknown person talking and we never saw them again not even sure what they looked like they were behind a walled area in a dinner place!!... said he and his family and friends hired a orthopedic/ dental doctor friend and for years tracked a person they are peeved with... knowing his or hers dental visits and knew they had a cap replacement at the dental offices to be done,so he paid his orthopedic/dental doctor friend to implant that hated person with a stalker harassment implant then as a a offender under fraud crime activity and then said he/she was a real (But really Not!)offender when the one hated was never arrested and now they know that persons every move through their phone and computer, because it is a illegal tracking spy/audi phone or cell phone military implant and illegally had it put in that person for revenge and to control whom that person for the rest of their life without cops even knowing...is and they laugh all day long about this.. and he should be able to hear him talk also and cops can't do anything about this and they find it funny and even let them know they know and taunt them daily!, They got it from a or under the face area chin or behind the ears...... he will eventually go crazy trying to figure out the voices he is hearing plus maybe even get into an accident and they don't care if it causes others to be hurt also....from the unwelcomed satiation and calling it a unknown circumstance! Over in the lower part of Central Wisconsin area! We were frightened about this talk!OMG!
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